NaNoWriMo is Just the Beginning
I slid by 50K yesterday, so I am an official winner. The novel isn't done yet, though. I'm happy about that, because the novels I like to read are considerably longer, so I hope to write something along the same lines.
So, my next goal is to get to 90,000 words by the end of December. That is a stretch goal. My fallback is 80,000 words. Do understand that I mean total words, in addition to the 50,000 I wrote this month. So I'm really aiming to write around 1333 words a day to reach that goal. My minimum daily target is 1000 words.
You may have noticed, I am goal oriented, and I also like numbers in my goals. It's just the geek in me, I suppose.
If you've been following this blog at all, you are familiar with this trend of setting numerical goals. But the problem is, I have a hard time with the follow-through. But I worked at the writing for a month. So I figure I've got a habit established now, and rather than raise the bar to something unrealistic, as is my usual pattern, I'm lowering it a little. I do have a day job, or rather an evening one. So this should be doable.
I also have the best sweetie in the whole wide world, who views my fiction endeavors as a permanent lifestyle change. Yay.
Now I just need to start exercising and eating right and meditating again. But first, I gotta go write.
I’ve Fallen Into My Novel
. . . and I don't want to climb out.
I feel like pieces of me are just sitting out there, waiting for me to get my butt back in the novelist's chair. Part of me holds pieces of scenes; dangling at the end of strings; stuck like floss in the folds of my brain; just waiting for me to reel them in again into the gray matter so I can squish them into shape and properly channel them through my fingertips as words.
My ability to be a retail store owner has plummeted. At this time of year, this is not a good thing. I'm planning to cross the 50,000 word NaNoWriMo barrier on Sunday, my next day off from the day job. Technically, I'm at work right now, but can't seem to convince my brain to come back online. Instead, most of that silly organ sits ensconced at a breakfast discussion with three of my characters as they try to come to grips with events which have left one of them bruised both physically and emotionally, and quite possibly made him at least a little batty. Part of it is looking for a character who's just plain gone missing, and another part is with another who has entered another realm, not unlike myself; and it's not too sure of the time-line, again, not unlike myself.
Oh, and I'm loving it. I love every skein of the threads and every turn I see in the road ahead of each of my characters; I love the settings, and the sounds; love the struggles and the emotions; and most of all, I love the wonder that writing is at least as fun as reading, now. And I want to go back. I don't want to be sitting here, writing about it as a feeble attempt to extricate myself for a few hours to do something 'useful' and hopefully profitable. I'd so much rather dive all the way back into my novel and not climb out again until it's done.
Tracking Progress
I haven't been updating my Geek Body for Life Trackers. I update pages for my own notes, but never type them in. I don't know if that is going to change or not. It's a matter of time, really. But I'd like the info online for my own tracking purposes, if nothing else. Right now, it would just be embarrassing to note that there was at least a full week where I didn't go to the gym. Sigh. But I've started going again. There's just no easy widget for tracking my workout project. Maybe there's something out there on the web somewhere. There is a widget for my new personal challenge though.
I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, and the widget is in the sidebar. So my new big project (in addition to continuing to work out) is to write 50,000 words of a rough draft this November. I've studied fiction and written short stories and even seen a poem in print, but I've never actually written more than a few chapters in a novel. It's time I did. As an official participant I get my own page here.
Categories
Novel Progress Tracker
That's a guess for how long the first draft should be for me to get the kind of novel you can really get into. I don't like those skinny-mini-booklets myself. My favorite book is the Lord of the Rings, after all. This wonderful adventure started with
NaNoWriMo
What I'm Doing...
- I haven't written for the past two days. Tomorrow I'm back on the hobby horse. 2009-12-03
- 1342 Words added to my novel today. #nanowrimo was just the beginning. 2009-11-30
- I win #nanowrimo with 50049 words. Still more to write in the novel. My arbitrary target is 110000. I like deep dish novels. 2009-11-29
- More updates...
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- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-06
- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-06
- NaNoWriMo is Just the Beginning
- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-29
- I’ve Fallen Into My Novel
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